Rick Perry and the Truth About Turkey

Governor Rick Perry has drawn quite a bit of criticism for his recent remarks regarding the country of Turkey during the Fox news/WSJ SC GOP debate on Tuesday night. When asked about his plans for cutting all U.S. foreign aid to zero,and whether Turkey still belongs in NATO, Perry responded as follows: “Obviously, when you have a country that is being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists, when you start seeing that type of activity against their own citizens, then yes — not only is it time for us to have a conversation about whether or not they belong to be in NATO, but it’s time for the United States, when we look at their foreign aid, to go to zero with it,” he said.

Note that Perry states in his answer that Turkey is “being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists.” He didn’t call them terrorists or identify any certain individuals as terrorists, but instead stated that many people would perceive the rulers of Turkey to be Islamic terrorists. So does Governor Perry’s statement carry any weight? Yes it does, and there are plenty of facts to back it up, which may be found by doing some very basic research on the subject of Turkey.

While the U.S. State dept, which is currently run by Hillary Clinton, has distanced itself from Perry’s statement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs came out with a very U.S. DNC-type statement in which they attacked Perry’s credibility, as opposed to putting up any facts to denounce his statement. “Those individuals who are candidates for positions requiring responsibility such as the U.S. presidency are expected to be more knowledgeable on global affairs and more careful in their statements,” the ministry said in a statement. “Turkey became a member of NATO when the governor was just 2 years old. … The U.S. has no time to lose with such candidates who do not even know America’s allies.” So just because Governor Perry was two years old when Turkey joined NATO., we are led to believe that he could not possibly know anything about the country of Turkey, and their eligibility for NATO admittance. With the Muslim brotherhood surging into power within Egypt due to the recent uprisings across the region, we see the political climate changing at a rapid pace today. The anti-American, anti-Israeli sentiment is at a dangerous level throughout the Middle East and North Africa today. Governor Perry obviously wasn’t referring to the Turkey of 50 years ago when he made his statement.

For some factual history of the examples of historic Turkish genocide, mainly aimed at wiping out Christians in the region, see this article. Millions of people were murdered or fled religious persecution by the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey’s government has shown the propensity to deny those facts, even today. And recently, William Dalrymple penned “Christians Fleeing the Middle East’ in which he wrote, that Christianity is suffering “a devastating decline in the land of its birth.” While today’s Turkey proclaims itself to be a Republic, it appears to be anything but a free Republic when we read about the Turkish-Muslim Persecution of Christians.

Fast forward to today. In this Fox News article, we see that recently the Turkish government has expelled the Israeli Ambassador, that Turkey’s [lack of] freedom of the press currently resembles that of Russia, and that Turkish authorities have recently met with Hamas leaders. Add to that information the reports that violence against women are up some 1400%, (2002-2009) and that the director of the Turkish Research Program, Mr. Capaptay, wrote an essay that stated that the Turkish government has “neutered domestic checks and balances” since 2002, a “consolidation of power” that could have consequences for its relationship with the U.S. He noted that Turkish officials have demonized Western nations, and polls show the Turkish people mostly do not view the U.S. Favorably. To Governor Perry’s credit, he stands by his statements, as he recently stated, “When you see the number of actions against your citizens that we would consider to be terrorist acts, I stand by my statement,” Perry said. “You need to be putting protections in place for your citizens if you’re seeing those types of attacks against, particularly, well, particularly females. That is particularly heinous from my perspective.”

Finally, some pundits and assorted academics have falsely argued that Turkey does not currently receive and U.S. Foreign aid, in another attempt to discredit Perry’s statements. Apparently, the very same government-paid propagandist who wrote the essay mentioned above, Mr. Capaptay of the “Turkish Research Program” are incapable of telling the truth and doing proper research to back up statements, such as the following: “First, Turkey does not receive U.S. foreign aid. Some time in the 1980s it was phased out, so this is not your mother’s Turkey,” U.S. Aid to Turkey has been “phased out” since 1980? Not according to the U.S. Government it hasn’t,as seen here. That shows Turkey receiving $5.4 million from the U.S. In 2011 and another $5.6 million slated to be given to them in 2012. Keep in mind that those figures are only for “base appropriations.” For instance, in FY 2009, the U.S. Government gave Turkey $7 million tax dollars for.. “economic development.” Mr. Capaptay would be advised to be careful with his own “inaccurate statements” as per his condescending statement to governor Perry concerning U.S. cash being given to Turkey today.

In conclusion, Governor Perry is 100% correct in demanding that the U.S. reset all foreign aid back to zero, reevaluate each case, and then reestablish the programs based on protecting American interests and preventing U.S. tax dollars from funding anti-American regimes. And yes, that should include Islamic-terrorist supporting governments and anyone else caught promoting and/or aiding them. Why in the world does the United States government continue to dole out billions of taxpayer dollars to hostile countries out to destroy America?